17 Apr 2015

After Liverpool's poor start to the season, a minority of knee-jerk LFC fans called for FSG to sack Brendan Rodgers, and outgoing Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp emerged as a bookmakers' favourite to take over at Anfield. Rodgers has turned things since then, but the spectre of Klopp remains on the horizon, and with LFC's season in danger of petering out, the German is once again emerging as possible threat to the Northern Irishman's position.

According to aggregated Bookmaker odds, Klopp is currently one of the favourites to replace Rodgers at the end of the season, with 6-1 the best current price.

Back in December, the following five managers were bookmaker's favourites to replace Rodgers:

I ran a poll on the site asking fans to choose their preferred candidate. The results:

Clearly, Benitez still retains an incredible level of support amongst Liverpool fans, and if speculation over Rodgers job intensifies again, the Spaniard will almost certainly remain a preferred choice of LFC fans everywhere.

Given a straight choice between 'world-class' Klopp and Benitez, though, I'd take Klopp. He clearly needs a new challenge, and like Benitez, he has a history of breaking a dominant club's stranglehold on the league.

If Liverpool get dumped out of the FA Cup on Sunday, and fail to qualify for the Champions League, Rodgers' position will once again come under scrutiny.

For me, though, irrespective of how this season ends, Rodgers deserves another chance next season. He's building something at Liverpool, and that takes time to implement, and there's enough evidence so far to suggest he is capable of getting it right.

That said, a manager of Klopp's quality and potential doesn't become available that often; the German is (arguably) perfectly suited to Liverpool, and FSG may decide that immediate action is required.

Is Klopp - hailed this week as a 'great person' and an 'outstanding coach' by ex-Red Nuri Sahin - a viable candidate to replace Rodgers this summer?

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31 comments:

Stick with the brodge I think he's a diamond in the making he's still very early in his career and no doubt will make mistakes a long the way, but he's a fantastic coach, intelligent and inventive guarantee of we get rid of him three years down the line he'll be at another big club dominating

Considering his recent buys at Dortmund have been duds, he's no different than Rodgers at this. He too has struggled to replace his star striker, which is the main issue with LFC this season. Any 15-20 goal a season striker and this team would have been matching Arsenal's points tally at the very least.

If Liverpool don't finish in top 4 then Rodgers deserves the sack. Rodgers has been the only person responsible for the debacle of this season. He had great opportunity after last season to strengthen but he botched and his mistakes have cost us dearly. His signings have been poor, we have regressed from last season immensely, he has made mistakes after mistake this season. He rescued our season for a while but he alone was responsible for the mess too and he repeatedly got it wrong in the big games. Bar Coutinho and Sturridge all his signings have been average or below average. For me worst thing about his team is that there is no aggression in the team, no fight, our team is too soft under Rodgers.

For me its no brainer to get Klopp next season regardless of whether Liverpool finish in top 4 or not but i doubt whether Klopp would join us.

i think we should stick with Brendan Rodgers, but bring in Klopp as Assistant manager if possible, smash our wage bill and allow him to be in charge of the signings. i have no problem with BR methods. but his transfer dealings ar poor at the highest level and the money he spent is unacceptable especially Markovic, Lallana, Balotelli, Borini, Aspas and Alberto. if Jurgen Klopp comes in on higher wages than Brendan and is brought in to work alongside Brendan with Klopp making the signings we will be devastating. Klopp has good record in transfer market. but if Brendan can just sign some quality we will be great under him. but if he targets players like Aspas, Lambert, Alberto then he should be sacked. i dont want to be buying Danny Ings this summer, players like this after having Lallana, its clear these players aint LFC standard.

Gundogan,Reus,Lewandowski,Gotze,Aubameyang,Kagawa,Mkhitaryan are all great Klopp signings and only Immobile and Ramos have not turned out that well but they can still improve. He has a great record with limited resources and has the pedigree to attract players.

I would question the need for both Ukrainian wingers though. I would get Kono, and rather Depay for Sterling's direct replacement.

Also, Vietto was quoted for like 12M wasn't he? I don't think he'll be more than 15M.

Lastly, Cabaye isn't really a DM. That would still just leave Lucas there. If we sell Allen, then Cabaye or Nainggolan would be great pickups. But otherwise, I can't see past Illarramendi being the ideal DM buy given our current position.

I made a mistake including Gotze but I would give Rodgers the credit for Sterling and Ibe. But, Rodgers has blown away a whole lot of money and when you take that into context, then the numbers you mentioned fall short. Klopp has made signings on limited resources and lest we not forget, beat us to Mkhitaryan. Almost all of his signings have been successes.

It's not like we haven't tried to sign good players. In Germany all he has contend with, despite the limited resources, is Bayern Munich. In Prem he'll have to contend with 4 super rich clubs, who have cash to spare. We wouldn't compete at that level until the stadium expansion is complete. He'll find it hard get the players he wants here. He has the pedigree, but I'm afraid that won't be enough anymore.

As I mentioned below, he beat us to Mkhitaryan already and beat a host of clubs to get Reus and Aubameyang. Klopp is known around Europe. Look at Laudrup as a smaller scale example. He had connections in Europe and was able to get some great deals. Klopp can do the same but has greater pulling power and can get better players. The thing with Klopp is that he would not be competing for overpriced British players or megastars but get experienced players with quality and a reasonable price.

Sanchez rejected us to go to Arsenal even after we supposedly gave him higher wages and one factor is definitely the manager. If Klopp was the manager, I am confident he would have come to us. Mkhitrayn chose Klopp over Rodgers already and Salah was just plain stupid. Klopp would be more efficient in the market and seal the deals quicker.

Mkhitaryan chose BVB because of Champions League footbal. His quote when the transfer had completed, "Liverpool have a great past, but Borussia Dortmund has a great present."

I don't bemoan losing Mkhitaryan, he has been a frustrating player for BVB. 12 goals and 10 assists in 62 starts for them, the bulk of which came in his first season. Coutinho has 9 goals and 11 assists from 58 starts over the same period.

Reus, being a German player (Germans seldom move abroad), was a BVB reject before being signed by them again for £13 mil pounds (which isn't a superstar's fee even in 2012 Note: We bought Sturridge for less in the same window). Furthermore, his exploits at Monchengladbach hardly put the world on alert. i.e. He hit stardom after reaching BVB.